- November 23, 2024
Articles
From Neptune to Gaza
In excerpts from a speech prepared for the Hetherington Memorial Lecture, Ramzy Baroud argues for a history of the people, by the people and for the people. By Ramzy Baroud Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune. — […]
Dispatch from China: Number 15 Has Left the Building
By RAMZY BAROUD Li Changchun is often referred to as one of the most powerful men in China, in Asia and, increasingly, in the world. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee. On April 8, he awaited our arrival at the Great […]
Indispensable IslamOnline Must Not Fail
By RAMZY BAROUD A widely popular Islamic website has been, until very recently, an undisputed success story. IslamOnline arrived at a time that millions of Muslims needed a common platform and a unifying outlet. Here was a website that neither shunned nor alienated. Its influence was upbeat and positive, rather than destructive or divisive. While […]
The Lobby vs. America: On Netanyahu’s Lies and the Spineless Politicians
By RAMZY BAROUD As I listened to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address an animated crowed of supporters on March 22, I felt physically sick. The man has already displayed time and again a complete lack of moral sense or ethical framework in his words and actions. In his recent arguments, he once again twisted […]
My Children, Ralph Nader and the South China Sea
By RAMZY BAROUD I basked in the warm Borneo sun, following a long run somewhere at the edge of a rainforest. The beach was only partly clean, but the water was most inviting. My children ran excitedly, collecting what I assumed to be shells and whatever other treasures the South China Sea had decided to […]
Activism is Change, Not academic Squabbles and Bickering
By RAMZY BAROUD An activist is a person who feels strongly about a cause and who is also willing to dedicate time and energy towards advancing and realizing this cause. This might be my own limited interpretation of what activism means. I was born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp where the daily struggles […]
Alternative Reading of the Al-Mabhouh Murder
By RAMZY BAROUD The killing of Palestinian activist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 19, 2010 was clearly a well-planned, violent and sadistic act, committed by Israeli assassins in the supposed safety of a sovereign country. Yes, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a Palestinian activist. We have no reason to believe otherwise. He spent years of his life in […]
Flexible Afghanistan War Objectives: And the Agony Grinds On
By RAMZY BAROUD Washington and its willing mouthpieces in the media have for years been trying to sell us the preposterous war in Afghanistan. While they attempt to convince us that the war is predicated on a faultless military logic and moral wisdom, it remains in fact a tragic adventure with no decipherable objectives, and […]
Challenging History: Why the Oppressed Must Tell Their Own Story
By RAMZY BAROUD When American historian Howard Zinn passed away recently, he left behind a legacy that redefined our relationship to history altogether. Professor Zinn dared to challenge the way history was told and written. In fact he went as far as to defy the conventional construction of historical discourses through the pen of victor […]
Western Media, Not Israeli Hasbara
By RAMZY BAROUD With the dreadful threat of yet another Israeli war in the Middle East looming, Israeli propaganda machine is likely to go into full gear. In fact, trial balloons have already been sent out bearing supposedly unrehearsed comments by former Israeli Army general and current Minister Yossi Peled, suggesting that another war is […]
The Useless Logic of Round Numbers: War is Criminal Any Day
By RAMZY BAROUD The media’s habit of revisiting certain issues at set intervals can be strange and even illogical at times. For example, many news outlets commented on President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office, as well as on the anniversary of his election win, and then again one year after his inauguration day. […]
Gaza and Lebanon: Beware the Iron Wall, the Coming War
By RAMZY BAROUD The Israeli military may be much less effective in winning wars than it was in the past, thanks to the stiffness of Arab resistance. But its military strategists are as shrewd and unpredictable as ever. The recent rhetoric that has escalated from Israel suggests that a future war in Lebanon will most […]
It’s Not a New Turkey, It’s The Right Time
By RAMZY BAROUD Uri Avnery’s assessment of the recent Israeli-Turkish diplomatic and political row – that “the relationship between Turkey and Israel will probably return to normal, if not to its former degree of warmth” – seems sensible and daring. In my view, however, it is also inaccurate. Simply put, there is just no going […]
Iran and Latin America: The Media States Its Case
By RAMZY BAROUD Should the United States be concerned about Iran’s determined efforts to reach out to Latin America? Or, as was suggestively described in the Economist, by the Ayatollahs’ strategy of cozying up to Latin America? The US continues to see the world as its own business. It gives itself and its allies, most […]
An Odyssey for Justice
By RAMZY BAROUD The recent actions of people from around the world in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza have arguably represented the closest manifestation of international solidarity since the International Brigades against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. A bold assertion? Admittedly, I may not be as in tune with reality as I […]
Media Vultures Are Coming: Freedom of Expression at Risk
By RAMZY BAROUD As you flip through a range of channels on your TV or browse through a stack of newspapers and magazines at a newsstand, you may feel lucky about living in a world where such a plethora of viewpoints is available. It might also seem that the apparent increase in media choices also […]
On Gaza Drivers, Rumours and Egypt’s Steel Wall
By RAMZY BAROUD Those pesky taxi drivers of Gaza are always circulating rumours. One story that made the rounds during the first Palestinian uprising in 1987 claimed that an Arab army crossed the Sinai desert to save Palestinians from the daily killings and protracted state of siege which caused untold suffering for civilians. The army […]
A Single State, with Liberty and Justice for All
By SUSAN ABULHAWA with RAMZY BAROUD Prior to the establishment of Israel, Palestine had been multi-religious and multi-cultural. Christians, Muslims and Jews, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, to name a few, all had a place there; and all lived in relative harmony. Other nations fought wars and waged epic struggles to attain the kind of coexistence that […]
Muslims Must Not Pay Price for Europe’s Identity Crisis
By RAMZY BAROUD It seems that the targeting of Muslims and Islam has become a kind of national theater in France. Unlike theater, however, the disturbing trend can, and will turn ugly – in fact to a degree it already has – if the French government doesn’t get a grip on reality. The world, including […]
The Lobby Within
By RAMZY BAROUD A just and peaceful solution to the protracted Palestinian-Israeli conflict is only possible when the US ceases to block every attempt made towards it. This assertion might raise many questions, for example, just how is one to define a just and peaceful resolution? And for what reasons would the US obstruct such […]
The Hypocrisy of Al-Demoqratia
By RAMZY BAROUD So this is how democracy works? In 2004, France banned headscarves and school principals chased after young "defiant" Muslim girls who continued to cover their heads in school. Now, following a national referendum, Switzerland has banned the construction of minarets, because minarets also somehow symbolize oppression. Thanks to the dedicated action of […]
A People’s History of Thanksgiving
By RAMZY BAROUD This week Americans will observe ‘Thanksgiving’ commemorating a romanticized era in their nations record, celebrating the supposed solidarity and brotherhood enjoyed by the first settlers and the indigenous people of what is now called the United States. However, this fantastic tale of friendship contradicts the candid remarks of many notable personalities in […]
A Paradigm Shift in Singapore: Yet Apec Offers No Clear Answers
By RAMZY BAROUD Like scores of journalists, I attentively listened as Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivering his closing remarks, and for the last time answering journalists’ questions. It was the conclusion of 17th Apec Economies Leaders’ Meeting in Singapore, on November 15, and Prime Minister Lee was clearly tired, although unruffled. Mr. Lee […]
Globalization Unchecked: How Alien Media is Suffocating Real Culture
By RAMZY BAROUD A Muslim family sits across of me in café, in a largely Muslim Asia country. An older woman shyly hunches over and desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the giant plasma screen TV, blazing loud music on the popular music video channel, MTV. The scantily dressed presenter introduces her ‘top song’ […]
How Israel Won the Settlement Battle Again
By RAMZY BAROUD When British Foreign Secretary David Miliband uttered a few words regarding the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, many wanted to believe that London was taking a sharp stance against Israel’s continued violations of international law. Alas, they were wrong. The fact is Miliband’s statement, made during a […]
No Emergency Summits for Arab Human Development Crisis
By RAMZY BAROUD When the first Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) was published in 2002, a star glistened in a vast, gloomy sky. The fact that a UN-sponsored report, authored by independent Arab scholars would receive so much attention in Arab media, was in itself a promising start. The fact that such terminology as human […]
Taking Flight: Memories of Diaspora
By RAMZY BAROUD [The following is an excerpt from Ramzy Baroud’s forthcoming book: My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story. The events are situated in Baroud’s historic home of Beit Daras, one of the nearly 500 Palestinian villages that were completely destroyed by Zionist militias in 1948. Baroud’s father, a very young boy […]
War, Negation and Muslim Identity Revisited
By RAMZY BAROUD A Muslim writer begins an article with, ‘who says the campaign for animal rights was started in the West ..’ She goes on to argue that Islam provided the original treatise on the humane treatment of animals. Her case was poorly constructed, inadequately executed, although the essence of her idea was to […]
Abbas and the Goldstone Report: Our Shame is Complete
By RAMZY BAROUD As Israeli bombs fell on the Gaza Strip during its one-sided war between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, millions around the world took to the streets in complete and uncompromising outrage. The level of barbarity in that war, especially as it was conducted against a poor, defenseless and physically trapped […]
Obama’s Test: Democracy or Chaos in Latin America
By RAMZY BAROUD Latin America stands at the threshold of a new era: one that promises a return to political uncertainty, violence and chaos or one of political stability and economic prosperity. Honduras is a crucial indicator. The possible outcomes of the Honduran crisis are likely to define the coming era for Latin America and […]
